A New Tarnished

In the magnificent temple Above the Gray Fog, three people known by the codenames of tarot cards were holding a special gathering.

After Mr. Hanged Man finished the question-and-answer session, Audrey, whose codename was the tarot card "Justice," spoke up.

"Mr. Fool, if-I mean, if I had the chance to join another organization, such as the Psychology Alchemists, would that be permitted?"

Klein, who used the name "Fool," remained leaning back in his chair and chuckled.

"That's fine. My only requirement is that you don't reveal the existence of the Tarot Club."

"If you become a member of another organization, the materials and intelligence you can use for exchange..."

Some time later, the gathering ended. Klein withdrew from Above the Gray Fog.

He closed his eyes and waited for the familiar sensation of weightlessness, for the cold floor of the washroom, for the drip of the leaking water pipe.

But none of them came.

He opened his eyes.

An unfamiliar ceiling, old wooden chairs, and the interior of a magnificent building.

He sat beside an enormous round table. A towering dome rose into the darkness, while dim yellow light spilled down from somewhere, filling the entire hall with an ancient, solemn atmosphere.

Klein said nothing, silently studying his surroundings.

Empress Borough, Backlund, the capital of the Loen Kingdom.

Inside a luxurious villa.

Audrey Hall had just finished attending the Tarot Club gathering. She hugged Susie, her golden retriever, and buried her face in the thick fur on her chest. With a trace of drowsy contentment, she murmured to herself, "Mr. Fool allows us to join other organizations... I wonder where I could find such an opportunity."

Before she had finished speaking, the burning gas lamps suddenly went out.

All the light was drawn away at the same instant.

Immediately afterward, countless specks of starlight poured from the lampshades, enveloping her.

When Audrey's sight returned, she found herself sitting beside the same round table.

She, too, remained calm.

A young lady of the Hall Family maintained the proper decorum on every occasion-though, of course, it was also possible that she had grown used to being suddenly pulled into unfamiliar surroundings.

She simply looked around in silence, then noticed the person sitting across from her.

A male figure shrouded in Gray Fog, his face and expression impossible to make out.

He was observing her as well.

And almost at the same time, the two of them noticed the third presence there.

At the very center of the round table, an enormous golden creation burned silently. Its light was not dazzling, yet it carried an indescribable weight, like a warmth older than sunlight itself.

And behind that light sat a person.

Or rather, a mass of starlight in human form.

Countless tiny specks of starlight spiraled around him, as though an entire night sky had been compressed into a human silhouette.

His features were indistinct, only a blurred outline barely discernible, but simply by sitting there, he had already drawn the center of the entire hall toward himself.

He was too dazzling.

Not dazzling in a blinding sense, but more like an overwhelming difference in... stature.

Like looking up at the night sky and realizing that the ground beneath one's feet was merely one speck among countless stars.

Audrey and Klein exchanged a glance, though neither knew the other's identity.

Yet both kept silent of their own accord, discreetly observing the hall while trying not to appear presumptuous.

The enormous round table, the towering dome, the doors shut tight on either side, the extinguished forge fire-everything was so unfamiliar that it seemed to belong to another age.

Meanwhile, Leon felt the abundant power within him and thought, That really was fast. Clearly, it was his true body that had appeared in the Roundtable Hold.

He sat amid the starlight, somewhat moved as he watched the two across from him looking at each other. No sooner had Ranni said the Roundtable Hold would set out ahead of schedule than she had brought his true body there.

Through the starlight, he could make out their outlines: one was a tall young woman with smooth blond hair, though he could not see her features clearly; the other was wrapped in a strange mass of Gray Fog, with only a head of black hair visible.

Leon did not rush to speak.

He wanted to let the two of them take it in first. After all, anyone suddenly pulled into an unfamiliar place would need a moment to recover.

Besides, to tell the truth, he had not figured out why new Tarnished had appeared, either.

The Roundtable Hold had no longer needed new visitors after he ascended the throne, and he had long grown accustomed to the emptiness here.

Now that two people had suddenly appeared, he was, in truth, even more bewildered than the pair across from him.

Leon glanced down at the radiance of laws flowing around him, somewhat helpless. No one had even told him to change clothes beforehand or anything, making it look as though he were showing off on purpose.

After quite a while, the two sitting in silence seemed finally to have come to terms with their situation.

The gentleman seated ahead and to the right spoke first, his tone calm but probing.

"Where is this?"

He spoke in Jotun.

In his predecessor's memories, it was a rather ancient language.

Leon gave him a slightly odd look.

His predecessor had not studied Jotun very deeply, but he could still hear a grammatical error in what the man had said.

Meanwhile, the other lady asked very directly in Loenese:

"May I ask who you are? What do you intend to do?"

Leon looked at the two of them.

One used an ancient language in an attempt to conceal his identity, while the other asked her questions directly. Unless he was mistaken, the gentleman shrouded in Gray Fog should know Loenese too.

He simply did not want to expose himself, but Leon could not be bothered with guessing games and pointless probing.

"Your grammar was wrong," he first said to Klein in Loenese. Then he recited the Jotun sentence with the correct pronunciation, his tone as flat as if he were correcting a student's homework.

Then he turned toward Audrey.

"Don't be nervous, miss. This is just a..."

A what?

Leon paused. He could hardly say, "This is an attempt," could he? That was too clumsy.

"A wonderful accident," he said slowly, with even a hint of languid nonchalance, like the master of a secluded house who had suddenly received two unfamiliar guests, neither enthusiastic nor cold.

"But I don't think its scope should extend beyond the Loen Kingdom."

Audrey sat beside the round table, looking at the figure wreathed in starlight before her, scarcely able to contain her excitement.

A wonderful accident.

Another hidden existence who, like Lord Fool, seemed full of goodwill.

After she had prayed to Lord Fool, hoping for another way to obtain Beyonder information, she really had gained a new channel.

Praise the Fool!

Meanwhile, Klein, his disguise exposed, felt a little embarrassed, but he quickly adjusted his mindset and tried to imitate Mr. Hanged Man's steady tone.

"Thank you for your generosity. May we leave, then?"

"Of course. If you wish, I can send you back right now."

Leon rested his chin on his hand and looked at the two, neither of whom had asked to leave, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.

"But there is one thing I need to make clear beforehand. Although this was an accident, after you were summoned here by the Greater Grace..."

"Whether you like it or not, you now have a new identity-Tarnished."

Leon's thoughtful voice slowly echoed through the hall, though no emotion could be discerned in it.

But Klein noticed that when the word "Tarnished" reached his ears, his spiritual intuition began to pulse wildly, as if it were an extraordinary identity.

"Tarnished?" Audrey repeated, committing the pronunciation to memory. "Is that... a title? Or an organization?"

"An organization? It once was, but now..." Leon shifted into a more comfortable position and leaned back in his chair. "You can think of it as a... special state. Simply put, you have now established a certain connection with this place. Those who have received grace can enter and leave the Roundtable Hold freely."

"Like..." Audrey began, only to suddenly stumble, then continued, "Some kind of mysterious gathering?"

She realized she had almost let something slip. She had instinctively wanted to say it was like Mr. Fool's Tarot Club.

"That's right." But Leon merely tilted his head, a hint of curiosity in his voice. "You seem to have had a similar experience?"

"Yes." Audrey hesitated for a second, then decided to be tactfully honest. "Sometimes, Beyonder knowledge can only be obtained through certain special channels, and I hope they are all as friendly as you."

"Friendly." Leon rolled the word over without probing further.

Klein had been silent for a long time. At last, he spoke, this time in Loenese.

"You said this was a 'wonderful accident.' Does that mean you don't intend for us to... do anything for you?"

It was a cleverly worded question.

It both probed Leon's intentions and subtly revealed that he was not averse to the possibilities brought by the "accident."

Leon looked at him again. This man wrapped in Gray Fog was far more cautious than the straightforward young woman.

"Intend?" Leon repeated, his tone still even. "Perhaps I will in the future. But right now, I need to attend to more important matters. Of course, when the time comes, it will certainly be a fair exchange."

He stood, starlight flowing with his movements and trailing fleeting streaks of light through the air.

"But since you're here... there's no harm in letting this wonderful misunderstanding continue."

He walked to the edge of the round table and reached out to touch the golden grace. Its light flickered at his fingertips, and the entire hall seemed to grow a little brighter.

"This was once a place where Tarnished gathered. They rested, exchanged information, and set out from here, with the goal of reshaping a world on the brink of destruction, only to die in some corner along the road ahead. Very few made it all the way."

His voice was very calm, as though he were speaking of something that had nothing to do with him.

"Later, I made it to the end, and this place became empty."

Leon withdrew his hand and turned to look at the two of them.

"Now it has new visitors. I don't know what that means, and I don't intend to force an explanation. If you find this place useful, you can think of it as a kind of... gathering. If you don't think it necessary, you can touch it to leave, and you won't be pulled in again."

"I'll erase your memories of this accident. It won't have any effect on your lives going forward."

He sat back down, and the starlight gathered around him once more.

"The choice is yours."